TRANSCRIPT

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

Airing date: 10/20/2018

Chinese Hackers, DNA Databases, New Wi-Fi Standards, Google in bed with the Chinese and more

Craig Peterson: Hey, Good Morning, everybody. Craig Peterson here every Saturday about the same time. So, I hope you continue to join me. We’re going to be talking about some of the technology that’s going to influence you, the movers and shakers, as it were in the technology field. And, there are quite a few of them. Things keep changing all the time. In fact, today we are going to be talking about the next big change in Wi-Fi. You know, we’ve talked about the new fifth-generation LTE for our phones before. This is huge. We’ve got two new targets for hackers, two new big ones, will be talking about today. And, that includes anybody who uses outsourced IT vendors. Yes, indeed, we’ll be talking about that. In fact, that article both of those should be in your newsletter that you got this morning. If you didn’t get it, make sure you subscribe. Craig Peterson dot com slash subscribe. We’ve got a really kind of an interesting turn around here for Google and the white house when it comes to China. Yeah, is Google two-faced will no that, that’s not possible. Turns out maybe they are. DNA databases. I know a lot of people who have done DNA research, they’ve submitted their DNA. And I know many people who refuse to, of course, we just had DNA in the news with Senator Elizabeth Warren and her claim to having Native American ancestry. Turns out she has less Native American ancestry than the average European American. I thought that was pretty funny. But, even if you did not submit your DNA to one of these sites, they can probably track you down. This is interesting, almost any European American now can be identified by their DNA, even if, they didn’t put it into one of these DNA databanks. How’s that even possible? So we’ll talk about that. And, we are finally going to put the nail in the coffin. Well, maybe? About your PC. Does turn it off at night? Make it last longer. Boy have I had a lot of discussions about that over the years with clients and friends and employees. So, we’ll get right down to the bottom. We’ve got answers from six of the top manufacturers of computers. And, we will discuss what they had to say about our devices. Should we be turning them off? And, you know, I kind of wonder, do they have a bias, right? Are they going to tell us the wrong thing so, that our computers break more quickly? Hmm, interesting question, isn’t it? Anyhow, Welcome. Welcome. Craig Peterson. And of course, this is Tech Talk. So getting into this, we’ll start with China, of course, Communist China, Red China, whatever you might want to call it is very central government controlled. I think most people know that. I kind of wonder about some of the younger kids. It seemed to think that just this panacea, it’s a democracy where 98% of the people vote, but that’s not this show. But we do know that China has been very active militarily. Their main goal of the People’s Liberation Army, when it comes to conquering another country, right now, seems to be cyber warfare. It’s something that they can do, inexpensively. It’s unlikely that they would lose lives, in the process. And, they’re also using their cyber warfare technologies in order to make some bucks. Yes, indeed, China is hacking. Now, I told you about a client that we picked up here just a few weeks ago, who lost $180,000 Right from the bank account. Stolen right out of that. As part of the business email compromise, The FBI is telling us has yielded 12 billion plus dollars to hackers. Money, real money, okay. This is not, “Oh, 12 billion in lost productivity”. And, you say, “Well, how do you figure that out”? Is that kind of like, wait a minute now, 20% of our employees are out sick on Fridays. So, there must be something going on? Well, but you do the math. Okay. 20% on Friday? Well, Friday is 20% of a work week. Okay. So there’s, there’s the math that that used right in the statistics, damn statistics and lies. And then there’s a math that in this case, means $12 billion stolen from

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companies.

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And, I know companies where this has happened to, right here. And when you’re talking about $12 billion stolen in the last 24 months,

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we’re talking about companies, all over the place, cause that’s a lot of money. And, in this particular case, hundred $180,000 was their operating capital all gone, overnight. So, they thought it was a Chinese hacker. The police investigated found it was a Chinese hacker. So, they flew over to China to file police papers, which they did. And, of course, nothing happened, nothing’s going to happen. It’s impossible to get any of that money back. Well, the US government on Wednesday warned that there’s a hacking group

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that’s known by the name cloud Hopper, and they are attacking firms

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in the United States. But, they’re specifically launching attacks against one type of firm.

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Now, I’ve had a hard time in and I’d love it. If you’d help me with this. You can just text me directly 855-385-5553 with your answer, cause I’d love to hear from you.

Craig Peterson 5:44
But

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the specific type of firm I look at my customers and my customers have tended over the last 30 years to be smaller companies that have grown. And they’ve grown to the point where they’re IT their information technology. isn’t enough for non-professional to handle, but they can’t really afford to hire the right kind of person. And, of course, in this day and age, it’s impossible for a small or medium company to hire someone that really understands security. It’s changing daily, it’s just, it’s crazy. So, what do you call a company like that, you know, the mid-tier, where it used to be that the office manager would bring in her husband and kid to do some work on the network. Install a new little firewall, they went down to staples, they bought a switch, but now they’re too big, they’ve had problems. Maybe they got sacked with ransomware, and they realize they need more help. So, it’s kind of I always thought a “tweener”, right? It’s a ‘Tweenie” company. But I guess, you know, that kind of sounds negative, doesn’t it? Because that’s like a “tweenager”, somebody who’s not quite a teenager. What is that? Like, the 12-11-year-olds? They’re tweens. Not quite teens yet. And so they’re not quite at the point where they can have their own professional IT staff, but they kind of need them, what would you call that? I’d love to hear from you. I’m trying to figure out how, how, how, what, what to call those types of companies.

Craig Peterson 7:13
And, when we’re talking about that, and that type of a company we’re talking about someone

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that typically outsources to what’s known in the industry as a managed services provider. And, that’s what we’ve been doing since the early 90s. Since 91, we’ve been doing managed security services and managed Computer Services. And that’s where I think they fit. You’ve got the small company, they’re too big for, you know, Uncle Jack to come in and help them anymore, or the nieces and nephews. They need more than that, but they can’t really afford a professional. And, in this day and age, there’s no way you can get a professional you might think you are but you can’t afford them. Because true professional now was going for well north of $100,000. 120

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and $180,000 a year. So, they turn to companies like mine. Managed security services, or just straight Managed services. And, these companies come in and they help with figuring out what computers do you need, you need to do an upgrade, they’ll fix something that’s wrong. And, hopefully, they’ll manage the security by getting into the computers and messing with them, as needed, doing the updates, doing the changeover into the new security software, right all of that sort of stuff. Well think about those companies here for just a second and I’m talking about these managed security companies. The outsourced IT people. Well, the Department of Homeland Security issued a technical alert saying that this group from China is engaged in cyber espionage and theft of intellectual

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property

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against these outsourced IT providers. A very, very big deal. Two prominent US cybersecurity companies are warning, that the Chinese have been caught by them hacking, actively trying to get in and that had surged, and that this whole thing is part of the escalating trade war between Beijing and Washington. So, what this means is, your managed services provider your outsourced IT company is being attacked and maybe even hacked. And what does that mean to you? Well, think about what they do for you. You call them up and they hop on your computer, right? We do it all the time for our clients. That means they have access to your network, your outsourced IT guys have access your network, right. They have access to you a file server. They might have the master administration passwords for that file server. They have full access to your network.

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So, why wouldn’t China try and hack

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these managed services providers? Why wouldn’t China try and hack these IT providers? This is a very big deal for them because then they get access to all of the companies that work with that managed IT, provider. Do you see where this is going? You see the problem.

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Now

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I mentioned this company that had lost $180,000, it was stolen and it’s gone in 90 seconds. It’s just its toast. Right? It is completely gone. So, I mentioned them and think about this for a second, How did they get into their bank account?

Craig Peterson 10:42
Well, although, this company security was abysmal, as most smaller companies are. They got their information stolen via their accountant.

Craig Peterson 10:55
Now an accountant, in this case, it’s very similar to an outsourced IT provider, isn’t it. The accountant had all of their banking information, right. All of their tax returns. Had access to all of this. That makes it a real problem. That makes it just a huge, substantial problem. And, in the case of this client of ours, this new client. They didn’t do anything wrong, particularly, right. They weren’t protected. But, the Chinese got into the accountant’s system and then went after all of their clients. Now, we have another case where we’re expert witnesses and this one is an interesting one, as well. Its kind of similar guess what they are, they are an outsourced IT provider. And again, I’m not naming names here, because there’s lawsuits pending, as you might imagine. Then, in fact, as I mentioned, we are involved in a case where we are witnesses. So I am and helping with

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with an insurance company in this case, because there’s insurance claims.

Craig Peterson 12:05
So, they had an outsourced IT firm, and the outsourced IT firm was not doing their job. and was not keeping the security up to date. So, who’s responsible then? Is the company that got hacked responsible? Because their systems weren’t up to date. Or is the assumption that the outsourced IT provider was keeping things up to date. Is that good enough? And that’s again, what the courts are going to have to decide. Because they’re looking at the contracts, okay, the agreements. Were the people involved up to date? Were they doing their job under the contract? And, I’ve seen this also when it comes to break-fix shops. And the break-fix shop is where you call when something breaks. So, they don’t have to keep anything up to date. They have no obligation to do the software updates. Or to keep an eye on the logs, right. Because all they do is respond. You call them, they respond. They’ll show up. They’ll fix a hard drive or a monitor. They’ll give you something. Maybe they’ll help you install some software. But, they have absolutely no duty to respond. But, now we’re getting Homeland Security telling us that these companies, that I have seen hacked over the last two months, myself, because we’ve picked up new clients that have been hacked, right. These companies are the ones under direct assault and that’s a very, very bad thing. Something I think we need to really pay attention to if you’re interested I have

Craig Peterson 13:48
business process agreement, that I will be glad to send you. I’ve had it for and I give it away for some of the bonuses and some of the webinars that I do. But it if you reach out to me, you can just send email to me at Craig Peterson dot com or text me at 855-385-5553, I will send you a copy, just a sample, you have to take it to your lawyer, right like all contracts, but a sample agreement that

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you

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can put in place with your managed security provider, or your managed services provider, or your break-fix shop. Whatever it might be. So, that they now have responsibility and they know it. And you have a contract that says that they are responsible for keeping your systems safe. Because it’s getting really bad, and when you’ve got Department of Homeland Security coming out, right now, with a statement. This is DHS official, Christopher Krebs, these cyber threat actors are still active, and we strongly encourage our partners and government and industry to work together to defend against this

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threat.

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I can tell you now unfortunately that the Chinese are back. We’ve seen a huge pickup and activity over the last year and a half. There’s there’s just all kinds of great quotes. And, of course, in some of the FBI Infraguard webinars I’ve been holding, we’ve been talking about cybersecurity 2.0 and even 3.0 and what you have to do in this day and age. And, I know, I hate to have to tell you this stuff because I know you’re trying to run your business. I see it all the time. I’m trying to run my business, right. And, I was trying to run my business. I thought I was doing fine. I thought that I was secure enough. I helped, remember, I helped to develop the internet, right. These protocols I implemented for companies for major firms, AT&T, NCR, RCA Astro Space, I’ve had all kinds of clients over the years. Digital Equipment Corporation, of course, HP client, USAA, all of these guys, right. So, here I am thinking I know what I’m doing. I’ve got the anti-virus up to date, I’m all set and I got hacked. Now, for me, this was 20 years ago. But I’ve paid close attention to it ever since then. And actually, it’s more than 20 years ago now 25 years ago.

Craig Peterson 16:15
And, I understand that you think you’re good enough, but I doubt you are. So, pay good attention. If you want a copy of that business process outsourcing agreement, let me know glad to send to you. You know, I’m not going to charge you for something I found, that I thought it is worth sharing. But, I’d be glad to let you know about that. Also, want to mention that I am doing webinars this coming week public ones, I’m doing one for the FBI Infragard as well, which is not public, this week. But a public webinar where we are going to talk more about ransomware about solutions. I’m going to do some serious training, no credit card required. I’m not charging for this. This is not a big sales pitch. In fact, I’m not even going to make an offer. So, it’s content rich. And the way to get in signed up for that is to go to Craig Peterson dot com, and we will be more than glad to sign you up. You will love it. We’ve had tons of great feedback from people about these webinars. So, what’s next when it comes to Wi-Fi. We’ve talked a little bit about what’s next when it comes to our cell services. But, man are there gonna be some changes next year,

Craig Peterson 17:31
We’ve got five G LTE that’s hitting the streets, we’ve got a big fight between all of the major carriers, who’s going to win. We’ve got attempted mergers going on so that they can afford to do these massive rollouts of Five G. Well 5G is the next evolution, here of LTE. And, it’s going to be amazing, because you’re going to have incredible

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coverage.

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Incredible speeds. Most people will probably just get rid of their cable modems, frankly. And, switch over to this, if you’re in, you know, suburbia, or obviously the city. Cause it’s going to be so cheap and so fast. Well, we’ve got a new version of Wi-Fi coming out too, and that’s going to help the cable companies maybe, survive. The problem, The biggest problem, that we’re trying to fix in both cases with the new Wi-Fi and with the new five G LTE on our phones, is that we have a ton of new devices getting introduced. We’re talking about millions of devices a day, sometimes. Think about it, I I ordered some light bulbs from Amazon that are Wi-Fi connected. Now in my home and in my office, I have an IoT network. I have a network specifically dedicated to all of these Internet of Things devices where it’s heavily monitored, heavily controlled, where they can go and has no access to anything else, right. But, I do this professionally. You as a home user, right, you’re not a professional, you’re a small business, you’re not a security professional, your obviously your professional what you do, you wouldn’t have a small business. But, you should have this. But you know, frankly, I’m not expecting you to have this. But, they’re trying to solve the problem we’ve got too many devices. And a lot of these devices don’t need a lot of bandwidth. But they need bandwidth, often. And then we also have a lot of devices require, a lot, of bandwidth. Think about the big users on the internet. We’re talking about Netflix. Most of the time, Netflix is the number one user of bandwidth on the internet. I read a book, written by, I forget what her name is, she was one of the head people, C-level, over at Netflix. And, and they came to realize, whoa, we’re going to be using one-fifth of the internet’s bandwidth. And it just kind of drove home how popular the company was. Of course, now it’s one half or even more. So, we have the mix of devices, that one a lot of bandwidth while you’re streaming a movie or video on YouTube, or you’re watching one of my training programs, right. Or, you have devices like clothing or light bulbs that needed to connect to need to have, you know, some activity, but there are a lot of them. And, 5g is where it’s at when it comes to the cell network. So, Wi-Fi has to compete. And, I love the version number games, right? Oh, my phone’s better. Because it’s a Samsung eight versus seven and an eight though it isn’t as good as an iPhone 10. Because 10 is a higher number, right. So, they all have to play with these numbers and Wi-Fi over the years, if you remember and boy do I remember because I’ve been using it since day one. We started with 802 11

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A. Then we went to, what was it it was B, and then we moved from be on to N. We have AX, AC, all of these different Wi-Fi standards. And today 802 11 AC is the standard. And it’s quite fast. But it’s going to be nothing like what’s next. So what they’ve done is they’ve changed the nomenclature around the current Wi-Fi standard 802 11 AC is going to be called Wi-Fi five. The previous standard which 802 11 N is going to become Wi-Fi four, etc., etc. So, you’re going to start seeing new logos as well. So you know, the little Wi-Fi and logo almost everybody uses. And that’s those concentric circles you see one-quarter of that right like a slice of the pie, one-quarter of the pie. That’s going to change it’s still going to be that corner of the pie. But it’s going to have a number on it. So it’s gonna say six or five or four. And, that’s going to make it easy for you to spot what kind of digital connection you have to the Wi-Fi network. Now they’re already talking about the devices are going to be supported on this. And one of the reasons is having to introduce this is, remember I mentioned Netflix. Well Netflix streaming at 1080P, which is high def, is bad enough. But think about the new 8k video that’s out right now. 8k video streaming, that is nuts. We’re talking about support for transport rates that just blow everything out of the air. Right now get it out of the air Wi-Fi. So, what they’re doing is they’re taking the bands that are already allotted to them the 2.4 gigahertz band where they will have four streams available at 1.1 gigabits and the five gigahertz band where they think they’re going to be able to have about 8 five gigabit streams, isn’t that amazing. And, the technologies redefining the usage and what they do with collisions and things. And they’re working on refining it before the full launch next year. But, it looks like they may be able to get 10 gigabits worth of speed out of the Wi-Fi. That is huge. When you think of most people aren’t even getting 50 megabits, nowadays. So, it’s going to require more electricity. It’s going to hit on your battery, as well. If you’re using these new standards, Wi-Fi six, for instance, even though it has improved efficiency.

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If you are streaming real high bandwidth you’re going to be using more battery. But, if you are content with watching videos on your iPad at the same data rate at the same quality they are today. You will find that you will actually be saving on battery life you’ll save a little bit on your electric bill. But, it’s going to be interesting because Wi-Fi six is it hasn’t yet been finalized, we’ll we’ll keep an eye on this for you, as we continue to, you know to move ahead in technology and that’s what the show is all about.

Craig Peterson 24:15
Wow, we are drawing quickly to an end of today’s show you’re listening to Craig Peterson and of course this is Tech Talk we’ve been on the air now for more than 20 years, as well long time eh. We really appreciate all of our listeners and we appreciate the listeners that right in a little note of support to the stations that were aired on it really does help a lot to hear how much you guys appreciate it. And I love to hear myself just a note to me at Craig Peterson dot com. I love to hear what it is you enjoy about the show. What you’re learning. What you’d like to hear more about. And, a lot of people just say, hey Craig, you you’ve been great at selecting the topics just keep it up, right. You’re so much ahead of anything else that they’re listening to or reading. So, I appreciate those, as well, because it lets me know that I’m doing the right thing, frankly. But we’ve got a couple more things we need to watch out for. First of all, your frequent flyer miles are on the target of hackers, out there right now. Thousands, In fact, hundreds of thousands of points and thousands of accounts are currently on sale. Delta sky miles. British Airways are the most commonly listed and these are being stolen. So, for instance, you can find out there on the dark web, right now. A hundred-thousand British Airways points for 34 euros. You can get 200,000 somebody selling them for 45 bucks. British Airways executive club 100,000 miles for 884. So, the prices vary dramatically. But just want to let you know you’ve got to protect your frequent flyer miles. And then that means shred your boarding pass after a flight. Don’t ever post a photo of your boarding pass online. I had a really interesting webinar for the FBI Infraguard and it was all about these people that are making threats and then they post their their picture of the game, right. So, the threats against maybe the Commissioner of the NFL or someone else that’s going to be at the game and they post a picture of their ticket and of course, again, track that way. But keep an eye on your accounts. The White House is calling on Google to abandon their project. Did you know Google is in the process right now of making the search engine for the Communist Chinese people. People’s Liberation Army? That is going to be used in China and allows the government to track everything everyone’s searching for? What they’re saying online. It apparently even goes as far as to tie people’s searches and a website visit back to their phone number in China. So, that is very, very scary. 1984, totally here in China. And Google’s doing it. They won’t provide technology to our military but they’ll sure as heck provided to the communist government. I don’t get it two face, two face. So, more articles you’ll see up on my website. I could ruin your business, right now. This is a sim jacking. We actually have a recording of it. You can listen to what these people are doing. American Express card used to pay $39,000. It just goes on and on DNA databases being used to track you down even if you don’t have your DNA filed. And I’m sorry I didn’t get to this point you have to read it online. Craig Peterson dot com does turning off your PC every night make it last longer. We’ve got the answers from the experts Craig Peterson dot com and join me next week for my webinar. Again all of that up and Craig Peterson dot com. A webinar its open, no charge. No credit card. We’re going to teach you more about what’s happening with ransomware, business email compromise, and the hackers take care we’ll chat with you next week.